The past year has brought significant changes to EL CENTRAL Hispanic News and all of them are aimed at bringing more original, local news and features to you, our loyal readers. At the same time, we are making changes to our operations and diversifying our lineup of reporters and photographers to make our media company more sustainable for the next generation and beyond. Global changes in the way people receive and process information demand nothing less.

First, the ownership of the paper changed hands when founder and publish- er Dolores Sanchez sold “her baby” to Eva Garza Dewaelsche and Robert Dewaelsche in April. We have known Dolores for decades and both of us have been active in Southwest Detroit for just as long. As new owners, we have set out to achieve two main goals: First, modernize the paper by taking it “online” to multiple digital platforms and second, prioritize reporting on more original, local content. Meanwhile, Dolores has stayed on with the company as director of advertising and sales to maintain and grow our advertising base. She has been a real asset to our continuing operations.

The most significant improvement during the year was our new partnership with the Race and Justice Reporting Initiative at Wayne State University
led by Martina Guzman. (See the highlights and profiles of the participating reporters and photographers on the previous page.) This innovative program encourages aspiring journalists and photographers of color to develop their skills and build out their professional portfolios. For our part, EL CENTRAL is pleased to publish their work and our readers benefit by learning more about the people and organizations in our community – stories that are often overlooked by mainstream media.

EL CENTRAL has also partnered with Planet Detroit to expand our coverage of environmental issues, which are so prevalent and important to the quality of life of Southwest Detroit residents.

We have added a translator to our experienced and dedicated reporting and production teams to ensure that our bilingual, weekly publication serves our English and Spanish-speaking readers. We hope you have noticed the crisp new look of our front page created by our talented graphic design team.

Finally, we have built a solid foundation to share our reporting with a much wider audience via a brand new website at www.elcentralmedia.com and on our new social media platforms at www.facebook.com/elcentralmedia and Instagram.

We invite you to share your comments and feedback about these changes and the reporting and opinions expressed in our print publication and regular social media posts. Write us – and any of our writers or journalists on these pages
— at info@elcentralmedia.com

Please take a few minutes to get to know the members of our team. Many of us are your neighbors and colleagues and we’d love to hear from you about more great stories we can tell – for and about our community.

Eva Garza Dewaelsche

She is the majority shareholder in the corporation that was formed to purchase EL CENTRAL Hispanic News in the Spring of 2022. As such, the newspaper and media organization remains a Hispanic-owned and Woman-owned business entity. As owner and publisher, she has editorial control over the content and policies of the company. Nevertheless, the majority of her time and energy is devoted to her full-time position as president and CEO of SER Metro-Detroit, Jobs for Progress, Inc. with its 350 employees. SER Metro is headquartered in Detroit and manages SER affiliates in Chicago, IL and in multiple locations in Texas. Eva was born and raised in Detroit and received her B.A. and Masters of Education from Wayne State University. She has worked for more than 38 years at SER Metro-Detroit in various posi- tions, for nearly 20 years as President and CEO. In the early 2000s she worked for five years as Executive Director of Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development (LA SED). Eva serves on numerous boards including New Detroit, Inc., Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network, Comerica Community Development and Advisory Council, LA SED, SER National, the Wayne County Development Entity, and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. She was also appointed to the Detroit Public Lighting Authority and the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners. Eva has won numerous awards and she says her most treasured honor was being recognized as a “Champion of Change” by the Obama White House in 2014.

Robert Dewaelsche

He is responsible for the operations of EL CENTRAL and focuses on the primary goal of including as much local, original content in each weekly issue as possible to be a voice for Hispanics in Southwest Detroit and throughout Metro Detroit. He is also dedicated to modernizing EL CENTRAL by streamlining operations and reaching a wider audience of readers by taking the publication online and optimizing social media. He is responsible for building partnerships with other media outlets and journalists which will increase EL CENTRAL’s value to its readers and strengthen its influence in the wider community of Detroit and Michigan. Robert served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Nicaragua and Ecuador where he polished his Spanish (which is now quite rusty.) He has worked at LA SED, SER Metro-Detroit, Comerica, Habitat for Humanity and at the Southwest Detroit Business Association. Throughout his career his responsi- bilities almost always involved work in Southwest Detroit. His experience in the publishing sector has included writing and editing for corporate newsletters; overseeing the Michigan Chronicle’s community tabloid section called “Homefront” and as a community development beat columnist for “The HUB Detroit”.

Dolores Sanchez

She is the owner of Sanchez Communications and the founder of EL CENTRAL Hispanic News. For more than 33 years Dolores was the owner and publisher of EL CENTRAL, Michigan’s oldest and only weekly Bilingual Hispanic newspaper. She established her company in 1988 to provide complete media services to and for Hispanics in Michigan. EL CENTRAL has received over 30 awards and among numerous awards Dolores received the Hispanic Media Advocate of the Year award presented by the National Latina Style Magazine and the Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She was selected National Latina Publisher of the Year among more than 300 Hispanic publications, and she is the first Latina to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Hispanic Press Foundation in Washington, D.C. and has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Hispanic Publications. Dolores was recognized and honored in a national campaign by General Motors Corporation, and she received the Spirit of Diversity Award from Wayne State University. Dolores continues to support the operations of EL CENTRAL in the capacity of consultant and as Director of Advertising and Sales. For advertising inquiries, contact Dolores at elcentralads@aol.com

Fernando Ramos Melendez

He completed his associates degree in graphics design at ITT Tech in 2014. Following his graduation he started his career as the lead graphics designer for EL CENTRAL where he has worked for the past eight years. Fernando is a Renaissance-era enthusiast often dressing in costume when he attends the annual Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly. His real passion is flying as a private pilot. He is in training to acquire additional pilot licenses and dreams of being a commercial pilot one day either for a commercial airline or a private company.

Osvaldo “Ozzie” Rivera

He was born in Puerto Rico and has lived in Southwest Detroit most of his life. He has been active in community advocacy and human services. He served as mental health director for ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services), as the executive director of Latino Family Services and as Dean of Students at Wayne County Community College. He served for 10 years as the Director of Multicultural Affairs and Assistant Professor (Social Work/Sociology) at Madonna University. For four years, he led community engagement efforts for Southwest Solutions. Recently retired, he consults for a number of social service and arts organizations. Ozzie currently teaches at Wayne State University on Afro Latino History and Culture in the U.S. a course he developed in the 90’s, and also teaches at the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work. He has written more than 30 columns titled Pensamientos y Recuerdos covering oral history topics and current affairs for EL CENTRAL. Ozzie is an amateur historian of Latin-Caribbean music, often presenting on Afro-Hispanic music, including as the director of the Afro Puerto Rican drum and dance troupe, RicanStruction. During his lifetime he has led a number of performance troupes and bands, and currently leads the salsa/ Latin Jazz band, La Inspiracion.

Jesse Jesus Gonzales, Sr.

He moved with his family to Michigan from Texas in 1964. During his 58 years in Southwest Detroit, he has been involved in his community in a variety of roles. He was a UAW organizer at Ford Motor Company where he worked for 35 years before he retired. He has engaged in civic and community improvement initiatives through agencies including Southwest Detroit Improvement Association, Springdale Woodmere Block Club, Congress of Communities, Bridging Communities, Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and the Hispanic Police Officers Association of Michigan. Jesse has a particular interest in promoting community safety and has worked closely with the Detroit Fire Department to distribute smoke alarms and detectors to families and senior citizens. He has been a member of the Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) which educates the public about disaster preparedness. He is a graduate of the FBI Citizens’ Academy and the Detroit Police Academy. Jesse has worked as community outreach liaison for Wayne County Commissioner Ilona Varga and will continue to serve in that capacity for incoming Commissioner Cara Clemente. One of his most enjoyable activities is playing Santa during the holidays, something he has done since 1975. Jesse is well positioned to capture important and heartfelt images from our community as our roving photographer.

Mariana Ayón RV

She is a poet, writer, publisher and multidisciplinary artist. She graduated in Hispanic Literature from the University of Guadalajara, in México. Her line of research is the interior landscape and how it forms part of the migrant identity. Since 2013, she has conducted poetry and theater workshops for teenagers in high schools, cultural centers, including the workshop for young prisoners in custody at the Centro de Observación, Clasificación y Diagnóstico del Estado de Jalisco, in Zapopan, Mexico. She has collaborated as a writer with articles since 2016 in different blogs, newspapers and magazines. In July-August 2020, she was the guest artist for the House on the Prairie Art Residency, in Kempton, Illinois, by the organization “Humans are a part of nature”, with her project: Paisajes del Silencio. In August 2020, she collaborated for the Way Of Exorcism” by the artist Dessislava Terzieva in Detroit, Michigan, United States. She has published the collections of poems Vestido Verde (2016) and Motivos de Agua (2019), published by Ediciones El Viaje; in prose the plaquette Frontera (2013) published by the University of Sonora. Her poems are found in anthologies and magazines in Mexico and the United States, including: Junta Versos (CDMX), Luvina (GDL), La Otra Orilla (NYC), Papalotzi, (Guadalajara). From 2010 to date, she has partici- pated in poetry readings and poetry cycles in cultur- al centers and public venues. She has participated in Festivals and Literary Meetings since 2010.

Carmen Elena Luna

She arrived in Detroit, MI with her husband six years ago emigrating from El Salvador. She has studied engineering in her home country and also loves nature, which led her to specialized work in the fields of environment, climate change and sustainable agriculture. For the past five years she has been a Spanish tutor for children using mainly the Waldorf methodology and she hosts weekly virtual Spanish conversation classes with adults. Carmen has translated articles from English into Spanish for The Line magazine, and she translates lead articles each week that appear in EL CENTRAL. She says she is very happy to be able to bring the news to the Latino community in the language we love.

Dan Graschuck

He worked for Detroit Public Schools for over 35 years. Teacher, coach, department head, assistant principal and principal are some of the positions he held during his tenure at the D.P.S. As a professional photographer, his work has been published in The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, The Michigan Chronicle, EL CENTRAL Hispanic News and The Detroit Monitor Newspapers,among others. He and his wife are enthusiastic supporters of the arts and his photographic works have been shown at the Detroit Historical Museum, the Center for Creative Studies, Wayne State University, the Walter Reuther Library, the Detroit Artist Market and the Michigan Gallery, to name a few. Dan is the Past President of The Detroit Artist Market Board and Head of The Detroit Artist Market Exhibition Committee. He is a current board member and has served for over 20 years on the board of Metro Detroit Youth Day. He is the Past President of the Historical Indian Village Association and Past President of Indian Village Historical Collections.

El 2022 ha sido un año excepcional en EL CENTRAL Hispanic News

¡Conozca a nuestro equipo de reporteros!

El año pasado trajo cambios significativos a EL CENTRAL Hispanic News los cuales, tienen como objetivo brindar más noticias originales y locales a nuestros leales lectores. Al mismo tiempo, estamos realizando cambios en nuestras operaciones y diversificando nuestra línea de reporteros y fotógrafos para hacer que nuestra empresa de comunicación sea más sostenible para las próximas generaciones. Los cambios globales en la forma en que las personas alrededor del mundo reciben y procesan la información no exigen menos que eso.

Primeramente, la propiedad del periódico cambió de dueño cuando la fundadora y editora Dolores Sánchez vendió a “su bebé” a la señora Eva Garza Dewaelsche y Robert Dewaelsche durante el mes de abril. Conocemos a Dolores desde hace décadas y juntos hemos estado activos en el suroeste de Detroit durante el mismo tiempo. Como nuevos propietarios, nos hemos propuesto a lograr dos objetivos
principales: el primero es el de modernizar el periódico publicándolo “en línea” en múltiples plataformas digitales y el segundo objetivo es el de priorizar la información sobre un contenido local más original.

Mientras tanto, Dolores se ha quedado en la empresa como directora de publicidad y ventas para mantener y hacer crecer nuestra base publicitaria. Ella ha sido un activo real en nuestras operaciones continuas.
La mejora más significativa durante el año fue nuestra asociación con la Iniciativa de Informes Raciales y de justicia (Race and Justice Reporting Initiative) en la universidad de Wayne State dirigida por Martina Guzmán. (Vea los aspectos más destacados y los perfiles de los reporteros y fotógrafos participantes en
el siguiente artículo). Este programa innovador alienta a los aspirantes a periodistas y fotógrafos de color a desarrollar sus habilidades y construir sus carpetas profesionales. Por nuestra parte, EL CENTRAL se complace en publicar su trabajo y nuestros lectores se benefician al aprender más sobre las personas y organizaciones de nuestra comunidad, historias que a menudo pasan desapercibidas en los medios de comunicación local.

EL CENTRAL también se ha asociado con Planet Detroit para ampliar nuestra cobertura de temas ambientales, que son tan frecuentes e importantes para la calidad de vida de los residentes del suroeste de Detroit.
Ahora tenemos una traductora dedicada a nuestro equipo de reportajes y producción, para garantizar que las publicaciones semanales bilingües les sean útiles a nuestros lectores de habla inglesa y española.
Actualmente mostramos un nuevo aspecto en nuestra página principal, que ha sido creado por nuestro talentoso equipo de diseño gráfico y deseamos que sea del agrado de nuestros lectores.

Finalmente, hemos construido una base sólida para compartir nuestros reportajes con una audiencia mucho más amplia a través de un nuevo sitio web en www.elcentralmedia.com y en nuestras nuevas plataformas de redes sociales en www.facebook.com/elcentralmedia e Instagram.
Invitamos a todos nuestros lectores a compartir sus opiniones sobre estos cambios, reportajes publicados en el periódico impreso y publicaciones regulares en las redes sociales. Contáctenos, o a cualquiera de nuestros escritores y periodistas a través de info@elcentralmedia.com

Lo invitamos a tomarse unos minutos para conocer a los miembros de nuestro equipo. Muchos de nosotros somos sus vecinos y colegas, y nos encantaría conocer nuevas historias que puedan ser de interés para la comunidad.